MeriTalk Provides FedRAMP Transparency With New “FedRAMP OnRAMP”

MeriTalk,
a public-private partnership focused on improving the outcomes of
government IT, in collaboration with the U.S. General Services
Administration (GSA), the Federal agency responsible for delivering
best-value acquisition to government agencies, today publicly announced
plans for a new initiative, the FedRAMP OnRAMP. This online portal is
designed to accelerate government transition to cloud computing. With a
key White House cloud security deadline fast approaching, the portal
provides government agencies with 360-degree visibility into their
existing commercial and government secure cloud service offerings. It
also gives government agencies a read ahead to new cloud services that
will become certified as secure in the next six months. You can access
the FedRAMP OnRAMP for free at www.meritalk.com.

“There has been a lot of talk about the value of cloud in the
government,” said Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who serves as
Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, Oversight
and Government Reform Committee, which oversees federal IT and
procurement policy. “FedRAMP OnRAMP provides tangible metrics and
critical insight on a program that is critical to accelerating the
modernization of government through the adoption of cloud computing. I
commend GSA on the progress it has made so far in implementing FedRAMP
and look forward to seeing the resulting savings grow over time.”

Leveraging real cost numbers provided by five of the 12 commercial cloud
service providers that have successfully navigated the FedRAMP
certification process, MeriTalk estimates the average cost for the
government to perform a FedRAMP cloud security certification at
$250,000. In addition, MeriTalk utilized government customer
installation data from six commercial cloud service providers that have
achieved a FedRAMP certification to calculate the cost savings the
government has realized by embracing the centralized FedRAMP security
certification process. MeriTalk projects FedRAMP government-wide savings
conservatively at $52.5 million to date. The six cloud service providers
that provided information have a total of 210 cloud installations across
the government. Applying the average number of installations across the
12 FedRAMP certified cloud service providers raises the FedRAMP
government-wide savings to $105 million. MeriTalk will continue to work
with existing and new FedRAMP cloud service providers to update the
FedRAMP savings.

FedRAMP is the security good housekeeping seal of approval for
government cloud services. The White House requires all government
agencies to use FedRAMP cloud services by June 2014. It typically takes
at least six months to receive FedRAMP certification, and prior to the
establishment of the FedRAMP OnRAMP, agencies had little visibility into
which cloud service providers were in the FedRAMP process – or when
those providers could expect to receive certification. The OnRAMP will
utilize GSA’s new pre-authorization progress reporting with value added
from MeriTalk’s cloud business metrics to provide a one-stop-shopping
source for the comprehensive government cloud cybersecurity outlook.

Without full visibility of their options, government agencies cannot
make good IT investment decisions. Today, there are 14 FedRAMP compliant
cloud solutions from 12 industry and government providers, including
Akamai, Amazon, AT&T, Autonomic Resources, CGI, Concurrent Technologies,
HP, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Oracle, and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. There are 11 new cloud services currently in the FedRAMP
approval process from vendors, including: CA Technologies, CenturyLink
Technology Solutions, Clear Government Solutions (CGS), Economic
Systems, Fiberlink, HP, Layered Tech Government Solutions, Microsoft,
Oracle, SecureKey Technologies Inc., and Virtustream.

The new online portal also brings new business metrics to the government
IT market. It shows the savings that the government has realized from
the FedRAMP process in hard dollars. It also provides new insight into
the industry economics associated with undergoing the FedRAMP process –
costs, savings, and timelines – sourced from the existing FedRAMP
certified cloud service providers. This will increase the number of
commercial cloud providers by increasing the predictability of the
FedRAMP process. More providers mean more choices, more competition, and
better prices for the government.

“Security is the number-one barrier to cloud reinventing the $80 billion
Federal IT market,” said Steve O’Keeffe, founder, MeriTalk. “Centralized
security certification just makes good sense. This public-private
communication to increase cloud visibility across government is a huge
step forward. It will help cloud unlock enormous savings in government.
We anticipate huge traffic on the FedRAMP OnRAMP.”

About the Government IT Market and FedRAMP

The U.S. Federal government spends more than $80 billion each year on
IT. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Hill have directed
Federal agencies to embrace cloud computing and shared services to
increase the efficiency of Federal IT and reduce costs. According to
OMB’s FedRAMP mandate, all commercial cloud services acquired by U.S.
agencies must have a FedRAMP Authorization to Operate (ATO) by June
2014. State and local government agencies also use FedRAMP. The state
and local government market is bigger than the Federal IT market – and
ripe for cloud conversion.

For more information and to access the FedRAMP OnRAMP, please visit www.meritalk.com.
To continue the cloud discussion, be a part of the Cloud Computing
Exchange at www.meritalk.com/ccx.

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